Week 4 - Where did this month go?! Hope you are still eating well!

Full disclosure, week 4 is were I fell off the bandwagon with documentation. I didn't save all my receipts correctly, I didn't take pictures of the finished products of certain meals (sometimes you are just that hungry....), I wasn't excited to cook and I wasn't motivated.. so this grocery list is still complete and the recipe critiques are available, but I will up my game next blog. Also, at the end of this week, I did a week of cleaning out the fridge recipes. Some were really tasty, but again - I didn't take all the pictures I should have, so I'm tacking them to the end of this blog!

Protein
Kielbasa
Italian Sausage
1 egg
2 Bone-In, Skin-On Chicken Thighs (I'm going to use Chicken breasts!)
2 Cod Fillets


Veggies
8 Garlic cloves
1 Red Onion
5 Ounces Brussels Sprouts
2 Ounces Arugula (I'll use spinach, personally)
½ Pound Spinach
10 Ounces Savoy Cabbage
1 Celeriac
1 Pound Russet Potatoes
1 Yellow Onion
3 Scallions
1 Delicata Squash
½ Pound Baby Bok Choy
2 1-Inch Piece Ginger
1 Persian Cucumber
½ Pound Jicama


Fruit
2 Navel Oranges
3 Lemon
1 Pear
1 Granny Smith Apple


Carbs
1 tube refrigerated biscuits
¾ Pound Fusilli Con Buco Pasta
4 Sour dough bread
¼ Cup Matzo Meal
½ Pound Wide Rice Noodles
¾ Cup Jasmine Rice


Dairy
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese
1 Cup Part-Skim Ricotta Cheese
½ Cup Grated Parmesan Cheese
4 Ounces Brie Cheese


Spices
1 Bunch Mint
1 Large Bunch Cilantro
1 Bunch Sage (Upstairs gardens!)
5 Tablespoons Hazelnuts
1 Bunch Thai Basil (I have leftovers from last week .. that I never used?)
1 Teaspoon Chicken & Latke Spice Blend (Caraway Seeds, Ground Yellow Mustard, Dried Thyme & Ground Nutmeg)


Extras
1 jar marinara sauce
Italian breadcrumbs
2 Tablespoons Butter
3 Tablespoon Honey
1 Tablespoon Whole Grain Dijon Mustard
1¾ Cups Coconut Milk
1 Tablespoon Coconut Palm Sugar
1 Teaspoon Matcha Powder
2 Tablespoons Golden Mountain Sauce
2 Tablespoons Rice Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Tamarind Concentrate


Recipe List:

Baked Meatball Sandwich

This recipe .. I'm telling you man, if its a viral yummy video and looks super easy - really take it with a grain of salt. The concept it great for a unhealthy fast meal at home, but the directions did not come out as smoothly as I hoped. I usually would make my own meatballs, but I saw them on sale at the grocery for the same price as ground beef and said, "Why not?" the recipe video implies using their premade freezer meatballs you can just pop them into the casserole and bake and they will be cooked through no problem. I did not find this true. The centers were raw and uncooked. We were starving so I manually pulled the meat from the bread cooking up around it and cooked them in a skillet, put them back into the casserole and baked longer. The taste was great, but that unpleasant raw meat surprise was.. not ideal.

Ricotta & Spinach Pasta 

This one, was a disaster for a few reasons. The web address reads "butternut-squash-kale-barley-soup-with-grilled-cheese-apple-sandwiches" so I assumed that's what I was making and was kind of sad not when I opened up the link. But C loves Ricotta cheese and when the recipe card opened up I was like "Oh yeah, I remember picking this one - still excited."  But then I opened up the Ricotta cheese which I bought for a recipe earlier in January, and it was orange (definitely bad). So I threw away the main component of this meal and kinda made it up from scratch. I used a different type of noodles on purpose because I couldn't find the fusilli pasta. I added Kielbasa to the recipe to have some extra meat.

Brie Pear Grilled Cheese Sandwiches with Brussels Sprout Arugula Hazelnut salad

So C wanted a Grilled Cheese, but I had literally not any of the ingredients, for this yet and shrugged my shoulders and tried to make due with what was in the fridge (ack mistake!!). So instead of Brie I used Gruyere. Instead of pears, I use an apple. C didn't want to wait for the salad to be assembled so we just ate sammies (and it was like 11 o'clock at night when we ate). So I can't comment on this recipe since I did not do it. 

Roast Chicken Potato Latkes with Savoy Cabbage Apple Mustard Chutney

This recipe was a hit! Ok, the only complaint is that Latkes took me forever to make. We have a pretty small cheese grater, so shredding the potato felt intensive. The roasted Celerac root was tasty and although I worried about the mustard chutney, C couldn't get enough!

Rice Noodles Coconut Matcha Broth with Delicate Squash Bok Choy Thai Basil

This was one that I didn't get a photo. Matcha powder is expensive but obviously a key flavor in thei meal. C bought some powder for himself to make tea ($27 for 1.1 oz - but he did but ceremonial grade!!!)  and donated the teaspoon to this recipe. I think its ingredients like this where the true value of Blue Apron shines through. They would send you the amount you needed, which is nice instead of buying a large amount of an expensive ingredient that you don't need after this recipe. We added chicken which I felt wasn't necessary. The recipe was very yummy with just the squash and bok choy. I don't think leftover reheat well though.

Ginger Tamarind Glazed Cod with Jicama Cucumber Relish Jasmine Rice

So as you can tell from the picture, I used Farro instead of Jasmine rice. I prefer it because its higer protein content and i think tastier flavor. C really loves Tamarind fruit, so I was excited to try the paste in a recipe. Its that delicious tangy flavor missing fromy our life! (Much better then the fruits texture and blander taste.) I also loved Jicamas! Its a root you eat raw and is so fresh and refreshing. I loved the "relish" and ate it the rest of the week as a snack.

Extra bonus recipes to clean out your fridge!

So with the meatballs and biscuit dough from the cassarole from earlier in the week, I had some extra meatballs that I made biscuits and gravy with! Here is a simple recipe for a great brekfast!

Allrecipes's Easy Sausage Gravy and Biscuits

Foodnetwork's Poblano Cream Cheese Empanadas Recipe I forget whiy I had cream cheese in the fridge, but I added chicken to this recipe and made a bunch of empanadas to eat for diner and lunch for a few days.

Epicurious' Shrimp and Avocado in Tamarind Sauce was the shiney star of clean up the fridge recipe week. This helped use up some of the tamarind paste from the cod recipe and was so smashingly good. I'm not even a fan of shrimp - but I do like avadaco and C loves shrimp so I gave it a try. We will be making this again the next time I see shrimp on sale. Very very good!

Continue on to Week 5's grocery list and meal plan!